ISLAMABAD: The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) on Thursday stopped the process to bring former finance minister Ishaq Dar back to Pakistan through Interpol.
The step was taken after the Islamabad High Court (IHC) issued stay order against the accountability court’s decision pertaining to the issuance of non-bailable arrest warrants for Dar.
The IHC, on December 20, barred the accountability court from holding proceedings in the case till January 17, 2018, while hearing the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) leader’s petition against the anti-graft court’s issuance of non-bailable arrest warrants against him and an order declaring him a proclaimed offender.
During the proceedings, Justice Bashir had asked the NAB prosecutor for a copy of the IHC stay order, to which the prosecutor had replied that the team had requested the IHC to provide a copy of the stay order.
During the last hearing of the reference, four witnesses had recorded their statements and presented Ishaq Dar’s salary and assets records before the court.
The court had also directed the NAB to submit its report pertaining to confiscation of properties of Dar and his guarantor and dismissed Dar’s request to appoint Qazi Misbah as his counsel.
Meanwhile, the NAB authorities have decided to challenge IHC’s order in the court.
Dar is in London since October and has been seeking treatment of an undefined heart complication at a Harley Street hospital.
On July 28, a five-member Supreme Court bench had ordered NAB to file three references against former prime minister Nawaz Sharif and one against Dar, on petitions filed by Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf’s Imran Khan, Jamaat-e-Islami’s Sirajul Haq and Awami Muslim League’s Sheikh Rashid Ahmed.
In its reference against the finance minister, NAB alleged that “the accused has acquired assets and pecuniary interests/resources in his own name and/or in the name of his dependents of an approximate amount of Rs831.678 million (approx)”.
The reference alleged that the assets were “disproportionate to his known sources of income for which he could not reasonably account for”.
Last month, the government withdrew the portfolio of finance minister of Dar.